Hints and thoughts about Management, Strategies, Team Building, Admin, basics, Trends, the Future and other topics.

Thursday, 1 December 2011

Decision making and the art of management

You are a manager, take that decision and live with it. The advantage is that if you select door a over door b, nobody will know what would have happened if door b had been selected as long as you see your decision through to fruition.

In all decision making there is a bit of “no risk no rice”. You make your choices and take your chances. But see to that you get a result. Nobody can for sure know that the other choice would have been better as long as you make your choice do the job. Abandoned projects in the technology sector is a sign of lack of work at the preproject state, unless you are engaged in r&d. There is a reason it’s called the bleeding edge. There is no reason for why a company where IT is in support of the primary business rather than is their primary business should need to be on it.

That said a successful new way of using IT in a business can give you a competitive edge, but the risk need to be managed and the potential cost upfront.

If you want good admins enable them to make some decisions. But always remember that you can delegate the decision but not the responsibility for it. Train them in your way of thought so they know the direction you would have taken, and therefore is most likely to approve off.

There is nothing wrong with, if there is time, a healthy discussion on alternatives. Hearing somebody else’s view could increase your own knowledge and let you see possibilities you might not yet have thought of. If you are sceptical, play devils advocate and magine up the worst possible scenarios to see if they have a solution for that to.

The worst thing I see is management bringing in consultants to make the decision for them. A popular way in government and the bureaucrazy. If management can’t make decisions maybe the problem is just there. It leads to lack of accountability, but accountability a very important part of management.